Given that Mat Utai won't be available next week and Tuquiri a couple of weeks away, is John Grant capable of playing on the wing?
Is it possible that Tim Sheens will play either Reddy or Humble on the wing and the other covering Fullback, though I don't see much speed from either?

I have seen calls for the young winger from Toyota Cup Korikete (spelling?) and was wondering how good is he and is he ready to play 1st Grade or does he need another season?

Any way my back-line for next week would be if all fit:
Reddy
Ryan
Lawrence
Ayshford
Grant/Korikete/Humble
Marshall
Moltzen

apperenty his positioning in defence let in a couple of tries in his first(& only)game of JBC a month ago...but NOBODYS defence in the NRL cld be worse than Utais.Nobody!!!
..& at least Grant can take a high ball.And now lets talk about hands...sorry Matt
Utai has been a defensive accident waiting to happen for some time ,but gets picked each week for his front row go forward.Thats really where he belongs IMO

Koroibete looks to be next in line from what I've seen so far. Grant has the potential but he needs more time IMO. He's good in attack but his defensive positioning needs work. This will come with more games under his belt hopefully.

We will probably use the up & in out wide rushing defence again...as we did last year against these two tea,ms, worked well in the first half.
Hard for someone to come in and get all that straight away
Brett Morris FTS?
Willow....from the little Ive seen of Marika he too gets a little lost in D, as does Grant, Utai....

john grant is ready he is 195cm tall 103KG and he is the fastest runner in the competition he was a try scoring machine when he played union.
when he played union his one on one defense was pretty solid and he is good under the high ball too
he is ready for first grade

innsaneink wrote:We will probably use the up & in out wide rushing defence again...as we did last year against these two tea,ms, worked well in the first half.
Hard for someone to come in and get all that straight away
Brett Morris FTS?
Willow....from the little Ive seen of Marika he too gets a little lost in D, as does Grant, Utai....

Yeah, Ryan and Tuqiri both position themselves well in defence, the rest of the wingers at the Tigers disposal...well there's plenty of attacking prowess there but the D is the main issue. I think having someone like Koroibete or Grant outside of Lawrence would benefit them given Lawrence makes good reads in defence, plus he's excellent at putting his outside man away.

I think Koroibete can learn to be a good defender, I have seen him hit hard enough including one hit last year when he smashed a player without the ball.

Having him outrside Lawrence would help with his defence. The main advantage of him playing left wing is that Lawrence in the past has been very good at setting up the winger. Koroibete if he gets in clear space will not be caught. I think it is a must to have pace outside Lawrence and for mine it is time to give Koroibete a go.

John Grant also has a lot of pace. I think he will be good enough but for mine he needs about half a year in the NSW cup to get used to rugby league. Having watched him in rugby he knows his way to the try line.

I don't care if he hasn't played NSW Cup game yet. The guy is coming from Rugby, not bloody soccer. Yes, I know there are differences, I've played both codes, and YES, I know no where at that level. But for a winger the game is not that different.

The only doubts people have with Grant is his defence; well to that I say... what the heck does Matt Utai do in defence? I like Utai's go-forward, but damn, he has nothing in defence. Grant can SURELY read better than that, and if not, at least he can defuse bombs.

The worst that could happen is that he will be a Utai that can attack, and attack very well. That's the WORST.